Viewpoints
on Strategic Alliances

This discussion
document outlines the recent history of strategic alliances and reviews
Booz*Allen's framework and methodology for assessing alliance processes.
This is a generic document-without industry biases-which can be applied
to almost any environment. The document is divided into four main
sections:

Recent
alliance activity shows more than 20,000 new alliances between
1987
and 1992. This is a significant increase over earlier time frames.
However, not all alliances are "strategic;" in today's
world alliances fill
the middle ground between strategic sourcing and acquisitions.
The success
rate for strategic alliances is higher than that of acquisitions
and
venture capital. They key to alliances is that they match strength
to
strength and balance control with collaboration.

Booz*Allen
believes it is possible to "leapfrog" the alliance
learning
curve by adopting specific alliance best practices. Booz*Allen
has
developed an alliance formulation methodology which helps reshape
management systems and processes and translate strategic priorities
into
actions. This document provides sample best practice templates
and
identifies seven areas of best practice as most critical based
on
Booz*Allen's research and experience: